Monday, August 12, 2013

"All that is needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

How do you kill 11 Million People? Title of a book I read
recently by Andy Andrews who lives down here in Orange Beech. Obviously, by the
title, you can tell that the book deals with the Holocaust and how Hitler
killed 11 Million people. In the book he takes the angle concerning the lies
that Hitler told to get the people on the trains. As I was reading it however,
Father wanted me to see it from the perspective of how other people in the area
allowed it to happen. One day your neighbor is at his house and seemingly ok
and the next day, they are gone forever. Why did people not speak up as the
darkness of the third reicht spread throughout that part of the world? I know
there were a few as I have been studying Dietrich
Bonhoefferwho was
martyred for standing for his beliefs.But Father had a different
message for me to look at and it involved 1 letter and 2 biblical people.

The letter that Father took me to was Paul’s letter to
Galatia. Specifically, Galatians 5:19-21 which says:

"It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own
way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of
mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket
gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love
or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided
pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival;
uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could
go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your
freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom."

Now, let’s compare our current culture to the one that Paul was talking
about in Galatia.

Where
are we as a culture as compared to the Galatian culture? Have we become so
arrogant that we believe we can do things without Father’s help? I would refer
you to the book "The Harbinger" in which the author makes the point that the
rebuilding of the tower at Ground zero is a perfect example of the arrogance of
our culture. Are we as a people “fat and sassy” and unconcerned for the people
in our communities. Where does our culture stand on things like homosexuality
and abortion? Take that a step further, where do we as Christians STAND when it
comes to those two issues. I am curious if any of your pastors have stood up in the
pulpit and talked about the abortion fight that happened in Texas recently
where the argument was whether or not to ban abortions after 20 weeks and
people were actually chanting “Hail Satan” at the crowd that was in agreement
with the bill. Or has your pastor spoken about Kermit Gosnell whowas killing aborted babies that were
"mistakenly" born alive? I wonder what the people who lived in Sodom would say
when looking at our culture? Do you think they would try to warn us that they
had traveled the road we are on and it does not end well? Do you think they
would be mad that Father destroyed them for lesser things than what we are
doing today? My point is that
our culture is growing darker and more evil each and every day and I want to
change the culture not just my neighborhood. That leads me to another question.
What has Father asked me to do to change the culture and am I willing to do it?
Here is where the two Biblical men come in.

The first man I was shown by Father to look
at is Jonah. I know you all have heard about him and the whale and while that
part of the story is incredible, Father wanted me to focus on his response to
God when given a task. Approximately 750-800 years before Christ, Jonah
lived in Gath-hepher a town near Nazareth. Ninevah at the time was considered
an “exceedingly great city” that was a four day journey across. Father looked
at the city of Ninevah and saw people who could not tell right from wrong
(sound familiar??). He decided to send someone who could preach to the people
of Ninevah and share who He was and tell them to repent and turn back to God.
Father chose Jonah (we do not know if he was the first or the last choice) to
go to Ninevah and preach against them getting them to turn back to Father.
Jonah’s response to the call was where Father took me. What did Jonah do???
Correct, he ran in the opposite direction. Some of us are called to do things
that seem extremely hard and we run the other way. We do not always end up in
the belly of a whale but we run expecting Father to find someone else to do it.
What Jonah was being asked to do was VERY HARD but Father had him picked out
specifically and was willing to equip him for the task.

The second man that Father showed me is Abraham. When Father
asked him to sacrifice his only son that he had waited so long to have, did he
run the other way? No, he picked up the firewood and started on his journey
without question. I look at this and am constantly amazed at his willingness to
follow Father no matter what. My natural reaction would be to run the other way
and end up in the belly of the whale.

So, why have I brought all of
this up? I have been struggling with Father as to what all of this means for me
for the past couple of months. I see a darkness continuing to build in my
community, state and country. I am not a glass half empty kind of guy as I
believe that Father is in complete control and as I heard someone say recently,
“The shadow proves the sun.” I do however believe that there are things that we
need to do to shine light into the darkness. A few years ago when I was out of
work, Father asked me to be a mirror and reflect his love to others. He has now
changed that from a mirror to the moon. I know that like me, you probably
wonder why use the moon as the example and Father was very specific with me
here. Martin Luther King is quoted as saying:

“Darkness cannot
drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only
love can do that.”

The darkness of our culture is
growing at a rapid pace and something needs to pierce that darkness. Why not a
lighthouse I wondered. The lighthouse pierces the darkness and warns boats of
danger along with providing guidance for lost boats. Father continued on the
moon because it shines into the darkness of the night but it is NOT the source
of the light that it provides, it merely reflects the light of the sun.
Scientists measure the amount of reflection in a percentage called Albedo and
the moon has an Albedo of between 9 and 14%.In other words, that big rock
in the sky reflects 9-14% of the light that hits it and pierces the darkness
here on earth.The
ratio of brightness of the sun versus the moon amounts to a difference of
398,110 to 1. Father has asked me to be like the moon and reflect
His light into the darkness of the world and work to increase my Albedo. That
is why I like the MLK quote so much. He speaks about the only solution to the
problem is the Love of the Father.

So, what do I do with the information that Father shared
about the moon? I am working to form a community of people who are being called
to stand and are STANDING for what they believe in. Their stance is spreading
the love or light of Father through their corner of the world which when in
community, pierces more holes in the darkness. I am working with social media
to put together information on people who are shining light into the darkness
of the world and by bringing information together on these people, we can
support others who are reflecting and get ideas on how to reflect His love in
our areas. I am also working to put together speaking opportunities to help
increase the Albedo of myself and others. How can you help? You can like the
Facebook page called Rays of the Moon and post information on what you are
doing to reflect His love in your community. It is time to stand up as
Christians for what we know and to do so with Father’s Love. It is time to as
Nehemiah said get back on that wall and do a good work. What is yours?